Polish President, Top Brass, Die in Plane Crash Over Russia

The London Daily Telegraph is reporting that Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife, the Polish army chief, and most of the Polish political elite and their wives perished in a plane crash over Russia.

“It clipped the tops of the trees, crashed down and broke into pieces,” Mr. Sergei Antufiev reported of the Polish plane carrying President Lech Kaczynski how it crashed. “There were no survivors.” Polish state news agency PAP reported the same.

In the case of a president’s death, the speaker of the lower chamber of parliament, Bronislaw Komorowski, takes over as head of state, Mr Komorowski’s assistant Jerzy Smolinski told Reuters.

Poland declared a week of national mourning as shocked citizens flocked to lay flowers and light candles outside the seat of government.

Notable Catholic blogger Damian Thompson, understanding the Polish people’s propensity for conspiracy theories, is speculating that many will begin blaming a cabal of Russian agencies for this tragic accident.

Let us keep those that have died and the grieving Polish people in our prayers.

For more breaking news of the tragic death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski click here.

Indeed. I recall my mom (who passed away recently) remarking when Pope John Paul II was elected, that if any nation deserved to have a pope of its own, it was Poland, whose people had steadfastly kept their faith under communism all the while Italians were ELECTING communists to public office.

We should remember them tomorrow on Divine Mercy Sunday — a feast we owe to two Poles, St. Faustina Kowalska and Pope John Paul II.

This is quite a shock – hadn’t heard of this till I came onto the blog.
No doubt it’ll be all over the TV news in half an hour.

Thanks for that youtube clip Don.

I recall my father speaking very highly of the Polish soldiers during the Italian Campaign in WW2 when Kiwis and Poles, together with Canadians, South Africans and Gurkas fought together. When I was a lad, I knew several of dad’s friends who fought in the NZ squadrons in the RAF who also spoke very highly of the Poles. Only trouble was, they couldn’t carry on a conversation with them. (language) 😉

It was reported that one of the three original leaders of Solidarity movement was on that plane also. I remember the first or second strike (1980) a priest came to speak to our prayer group rode up on his motorcycle with a bumper sticker Proud to be Polish. These events gave us such hope.

Ah, I have been busy with other matters and haven’t been online – but these deaths have greatly saddened me. I’m half Polish and my late mother was both very devout and very proud of her Polish heritage. Playing the comparison game is odious, but if Ireland was misruled by Britain for centuries, consider the lot of poor Poland, with not one, but two powerful and ruthless neighbors – Russia and Germany – to contend with. It was my hope, after Communism fell (much credit to the Pope and the brave men and women of Solidarity)that Poland’s story would finally be a happy one. This tragedy, coming on top of so many others in Polish history – well, my heart and prayers go out to those people.

But the silver lining is that democracy in Poland is strong. Unlike many in the West, they are not a people who take their freedom for granted.